Assasins By Night
by xXMysticXPhoenixXx
Summary: Squall, Rinoa, and the gang are in the middle of a supernatural war amongst Vampires, Lycanthropes, and Casters. Too many of their friends have died, and they say it's time for this war to be over. But how do you end a war that spans generations?
1. Chapter 1

**xXMXPXx: This is the first Fic I've even tried to post since my computer crashed on me so I'm just gonna hope for a good response from anyone who reads this. **

**Saeka: Rin, you always worry...you should just go with the flow, ya know.. -goes back to cloud-watching-**

**xXMXPXx: Oh shut up you lazy bum..all you ever do is...well...be lazy! Anyways Squally can cheer me up right?**

**Squall: o.O...when did I get here...? -wanders around-**

**xXMXPXx: -sigh- Just do the disclaimer Saeka... -throws a shoe at Squall-**

**Saeka: xXMysticXPhoenixXx, or Rin, does not own the characters of Final Fantasy, though she did make up the Red Rose bar that they all go to -flop's down on back tiredly- Oh...and she isn't making any money off this...or making any money period...just thought I'd say that D**

**xXMXPXx: -eyebrow twitches- Saeka...you didn't need to say that! -grabs out kunai- If you're gonna complain, then how bout you go get some money so I won't be poor anymore!**

**Saeka: Too troublesome...-kunai lands next to head- XD...I'll...er-...just, be leaving now...**

**Squall: On with the Story!**

**xXMXPXx: -sigh- Now he knows why he's here...**

_**Assassins By Night**_

"Back already?" A green-eyed brunette with her hair flipped out in an odd fashion jumped up from a couch in a small apartment, gazing expectantly at the blue-eyed blonde who had just walked in.

"Lemme guess, another creep who just wanted you for your body?" A chocolate-brown-eyed girl with long black hair with streaks of brown on the sides, looked over the arm of a chair to the blonde.

"I just wish there was a guy out there who wasn't just trying to get me into bed with him." The blonde said frustrated. She threw her coat over the back of a chair as the brunette flung herself back onto the couch and the black-haired girl turned her head back around to watch the news.

"Anyone we know die?" The blonde asked seriously. There had been a war in the clans and her and her roommates were some of the only people who still lived together in harmony while they were of different races.

"No, but we're on T.V.!" The black-haired girl turned up the volume as they all watched with interest.

"The three mysterious people who keep turning up at major crime scenes across the city have been witnessed yet again. This time at the murder of a Miss Xu Ruana. Miss Ruana, 18, lived in a small flat in the East of Esthar, she was a secretary for a man named Cid Kramer. Mr. Kramer owns Knight Industries, a small manufacturing company.

"Mr. Kramer said he sent his secretary home for the night early because she told him she was having visitors later. She did not, in fact, have any company later in the night. The three mysterious people, whom many speculate to be the gruesome killers, were spotted leaving Miss Ruana's house by her neighbor.

"The neighbor said she not only saw them leave the house, she said she saw them crying as they left. Are these mysterious people the actually murders or are they just saying good bye to the people they know? More news coverage will be on later at 11 on Estharian News Channel 11.." The reporters voice trailed off as the black-haired girl turned the volume down.

"The news was actually close.." The brunette said sadly. Her and her roommates used to be in school with Xu, but Xu said it was all right they killed her, she would rather have them do it than someone else.

"This is just how bad it gets in these wars...we have to stoop so low as to kill our friends..." The black haired girl had a hard set look on her features, she was trying not to cry.

"Soon, we'll just be killing our own family." She said it almost pleasantly and the other two knew why. She had always hated her father and he didn't seem to care about her much either, it had been like that since the day her mother died. She blamed her father for her death, and he blamed his own child.

"Rin, we won't be killing our own family!" The brunette said distressed on the brink of tears herself, "I won't do it!"

"I know you won't Selphie, but if you won't, they'll just send someone else to do it." Rinoa whispered tears falling down her cheeks.

"Both of you, stop!" the blonde finally spoke up as Selphie was about to yell back at Rinoa. "No matter what, we just have to stick together and protect the ones we care about...even at the cost of our own lives." She said the last part quietly but both heard.

"You're right Quisty." Selphie whispered as the tears escaped from under her dark eyelashes.

XxXxX

"Looks like Xu has been taken out of the family." A man with long-wavy auburn hair which was up in a ponytail, a cowboy hat perched atop his head with deep violet-tinted eyes said, as he listened to the reporter on the T.V. He sat on a couch, a remote in hand.

"Looks like it was Caraway who did it." A boy with vivid-blonde hair that was put up in large spikes on his head and bright blue eyes, walked out of a small kitchen caring a hotdog in one hand and a soda in the other. As he turned a strange tribal-like tattoo taking up most of the left side of his face could be seen.

"We gonna tell Squall now, or when he comes down?" The cowboy said just as footsteps were heard coming down a set of hidden stairs.

"Tell me what?" Squall, who had long-messy grey-brown hair that loosely fell in front of his steely-cobalt-blue eyes, with a long slash of a scar running between them, asked irritably heading straight for the kitchen.

"Morning sleepy. The sun set two hours ago, you had a long night last night?" The cowboy asked laughing.

"Tell me what, Irvine?" Squall yelled as he glared at the cowboy.

"Okay, okay...a report just said Caraway's people killed Xu." Irvine said in a more serious tone looking back at the T.V. on which a smiling picture of Xu looked back at him.

"Xu...we went to school with her didn't we?" The blonde asked thinking as he looked at the picture on the T.V.

"Zell, you literally ran into her the very first day of school, you knocked her over and landed on top of her." Irvine said holding back a laugh as Zell flushed a light shade of pink.

"Oh...ya, now I remember Xu." He said quietly mumbling something else under his breath.

"But wait...Isn't she a member of your clan Squall, why would her last name be Ruana?" Irvine turned his attention to the moody brunette who seemed out of touch with reality at the moment.

"What?" Irvine was right, Squall was off in his own world probably somehow coming to the conclusion that this was his fault or he had to do something heroic, something along those lines.

"I asked...if Xu is in your clan, then how come her last name is Ruana?" Irvine asked again in a slower voice, Squall heard him this time.

"Why is my last name Leonhart?" He asked simply walking out of the kitchen towards the front door pulling a jacket around himself as he went. He was gone in a few strides and Irvine and Zell were left to wonder where he was going.

"Red Rose, Park, or the long way past the Manor?" Zell asked knowing Squall's usual places he went whenever he left the apartment.

"Hard choice, I would place my money on either the park or the Manor, he wouldn't want to go to the Rose because of the crowds." Irvine said looking at a picture, the gleam of the glass in the frame just catching his eye.

It was taken right when they got this apartment, Zell had told Squall to come downstairs for some phone call. As Squall came down Zell jumped him pulling Squall into the photo. It hadn't turned out half bad either, it was normally very difficult to get a picture of Squall.

Irvine was on the right smiling at the camera as Zell stood next to him, his left arm draped around Irvine and his right holding Squall so he couldn't get away, and though Squall tried as hard as he could to get away in time, he couldn't and the flash went off.

They had been best friends ever since, but Squall still had his old habits of being a loner running through his veins, no matter how hard Irvine and Zell tried to break him of those habits, Squall still stuck with most of them.

"Irvine!" Irvine turned to Zell startled.

"What?" Irvine blinked.

"I asked you, should we see if he went to the Manor? Hyne, now you're acting like him." Zell pointed his thumb in the direction Squall left while grabbing his jacket next to the front door. Only then did Zell's word finally reached through to Irvine.

"Wait for me!" Irvine grabbed his tan duster and followed his friend out the door, locking the apartment behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**xXMXPXx: Hey everyone-...er-...hello to the two people who actually reviewed my story. I LOVE you both soooo much!**

**Saeka: Ddaammnn...you haven't posted this in soooooo effing long Rin...**

**xXMXPXx: Ya well...I'm sorry okay!? ... I honestly did mean to post this before now...I've even had the chapters written for such a looooong time now...sigh...there is just no excuse for me not updating...bows...Gomen nasai, minna.**

**Saeka: Just get on with the story Rin...I wanna know what's gonna happen**

**-Neji walks up- **

**Neji: Saeka read the story later, Shikamaru says he needs you...in the bedroom...sweatdrop...just go.**

**-Saeka's already gone-**

**xXMXPXx: Uhm...on with the story...**

_**Assassins By Night**_

"You guys, I-...I gotta get out of here." Rinoa stood up wiping her tears away.

"Rin..." Selphie turned, watching her friend grabbing keys out of her pocket.

"Where?" Quistis turned to Rinoa, she wasn't crying but she couldn't help frowning.

"Just a walk in the park. I'm not gonna do anything drastic, I just need some fresh air." Rinoa was reassuring her friends as best she could with tears going down her cheeks.

"Okay, just don't be too long it's not safe being out alone anymore." Quistis said walking over to Selphie with a handkerchief.

"Right. I won't be out for more than an hour." Rinoa locked the door behind her as she set off down the street, taking a few alleyways just to get there faster.

She soon found the large iron gates that read "Esthar City Park" across the top and turned right, following the dark path into the luscious greenery.

She kept her head low as she walked, not wanting to draw attention to herself by revealing her face. The other clans wandered around in the night too. What she didn't notice was that someone was walking in her direction, his own head held low so as to not reveal his own face to others. He seemed as deep in thought as Rinoa was and neither noticed the other untill the collision.

"Sorry." Rinoa mumbled picking herself up from the ground. The man was only just pushed backwards a step, Rinoa had fallen over.

"Ya." The man mumbled pulling his jacket closer around himself. Then he gave a little sniff, as if he smelt something foul in the air.

Rinoa knew exactly what that sniff meant, she looked up quickly to see a flash of red behind those icy-cobalt eyes. This man was from one of the other clans, but which one?

"What clan?" Rinoa whispered barely audible, but he heard quite clearly.

"What clan are you from, Caster?" Rinoa hated what Vampires and Lycanthropes called her kind.

"I am a Heartilly." Rinoa said clearly, but not loud enough for others to hear.

"No you aren't. The Heartilly clan died out with Julia Heartilly." He said glaring at her, but she still stared into his eyes not afraid.

"Yes, she was my mother. As I asked, what clan are you from?" His eyes became narrower, if it were possible.

"I'm Squall Leonhart, that's all you need to know Caster Heartilly." He started to walk around her but she moved in front of him her eyes still locked in his gaze.

"My name is not Caster, it's Rinoa. I would appreciate it if you called me that instead." Now it was Rinoa who walked around him on her way to the other end of the park. She heard his foot steps start up and thought that he was heading in the other direction.

She soon stood face to face with him again as he stared at her, a storm brewing in his eyes as a mixture of emotions were showing in them. Rinoa jumped as she stared at him, and he stared unblinkingly back at her.

"You are very brave Cast-...Rinoa. You say you are a Heartilly?" He asked as he still stared at her, a storm of confusion, expectancy, curiosity, and if Rinoa wasn't mistaken...sadness, was brewing in his eyes.

"Yes, I am the last remaining Heartilly. And you say you are a Leonhart...I thought that Raine ended that line." Rinoa still stared, trying not to miss a new emotion that would appear in his icy eyes.

"I'm the last remaining Leonhart, as you are the last Heartilly. One thing, didn't Julia marry Caraway?" Now she knew what he wanted, He wanted to know if she was one of Caraway's Team.

"All you need to know, Squall, is that I'm the last Heartilly, not Caraway." She tried to walk around him but his arm shot out and grabbed hers.

"Just tell me..." He turned his head away not looking at her, "did you, Miss. Rinoa, kill Xu Ruana?" This was a hard choice, Rinoa didn't know what to say. His voice was indifferent, but she thought he seemed to be good at hiding emotion.

"And if I answer?" Rinoa whispered, maybe this Squall guy had been in love with Xu.

"I just want to know. I have to tell my friends." He looked back at her and she saw he was being completely truthful, she could see the curiosity burning in his eyes, and that there was no violence or any look of him wanting to hurt her showing, and that mysterious sadness was gone also.

Rinoa pulled her arm away from him, "Yes." She started walking quickly away and didn't look back or run into Squall again as she finished walking through the park.

XxXxX

"Irvine. Get me all the information you can on a Miss. Rinoa Heartilly." Squall talked into a small black cell phone as he stood in the park were Rinoa had told him she killed Xu.

"But, I thought that Julia..." Irvine started.

"No, she had a daughter, not many people know. I want to know everything about her, you and Zell get to work, we have to end this war." Squall shut the phone before Irvine could say anything else.

"_All you need to know Squall, is that I'm the last Heartilly, not Caraway."_ So she really didn't like her father, and her mother died when she was little. She must have had a rough time, just like Squall did.

He couldn't get her out of his mind as he walked along the sidewalk to the exit of the park. She seemed about to cry when she had told him she killed Xu. Her eyes, her face, the way she stared him straight in the eye while he glared at her, how she stood up to him when he called her a Caster. Nothing he thought of got her out of his mind, nothing he did made her face fog away either.

He was at the apartment in no time and found Zell searching on the computer and typing fiercely. Irvine was talking rapidly on the phone, his conversation hardly decipherable, and pulling papers out of folders he was looking through.

"Right, here he is now. Squall! Kiros wants to know why you took an interest in..." Irvine stopped as Squall pushed past him and up the always darkened stairs. "Uhhh...Kiros? Squall doesn't want to talk right now." Irvine continued his search through the many files around him.

Squall slowly walked up the stairs going into his darkened room and sitting at a desk. A black laptop was lying on the desk, its' face grey with a small glowing green light at the top-center of it. Squall touched the pad on the small computer and the desktop glowed bright red, it was a picture of a glowing red lion with wings, his family crest, with the word 'Griever' written at the bottom in an intricate cursive.

He pulled up the search engine and typed in the name 'Rinoa Heartilly'. Nothing came up and then he thought if she hated her father like he himself did she would have of course changed her last name to her mothers.

He tried typing in 'Rinoa Heartilly-Caraway' and it seemed as if nothing was going to pop up again but then, a blurry picture appeared, it steadily grew more clearer and then, Squall saw the girl who he couldn't seem to get out of his head, smiling back at him.


	3. Chapter 3

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xXMXPXx: Well I hate my computer...

Saeka: You didn't before?

xXMXPXx: Well no, I did hate it before...But now I hate it more...not even one single program on my computer would let me post this chapter...

Squall: Then how are you posting this?

Saeka: She was getting to that Mr. Impatient-pants!

xXMXPXx: I finally found one program that works, so sorry this chapter is late...Oh yes...and Reviews are MUCH appreciated...

Squall and Saeka: On with the story!

**_Assassins By Night_**

Rinoa hurried back as quick as she could go, her apartments were coming closer then she saw him. Squall was just ahead of her he seemed lost in thought and she preferred it that way.

He walked to the apartment directly next to hers and Rinoa's heart stopped. He had been close this whole time, he had lived right next to her and she hadn't known, how stupid of her to not check who her own neighbors were.

After he disappeared through his front door, Rinoa practically ran into their apartment locking the door quickly behind herself.

"Rin...what-" Selphie started.

"Shh!" Rinoa put a finger up to her lips as she ran to Quistis' computer.

"Rinoa?" Quistis just stared as Rinoa shushed her.

"Ok...in the apartment next to us is a vampire, the last of the Leonhart Clan." Rinoa whispered pulling up a picture taken from a security camera set up out side facing their apartment.

Squall walked by and Rinoa paused the footage, she enlarged his profile and you could just barely see him clearly as he was deep in thought. He was paused right as his hand reached inside his jacket for his keys.

"He lives right next door?" Selphie sounded worried as she whispered too.

"Rinoa, how do you know that he is the last of the Leonhart clan?" Quistis talked normally and sounded very skeptical.

"Shh Quisty! Look, I met him at the park, we ran into eachother and he smelt magic on me. We started talking and he told me who he was. I need you guys to find out as much as you can about him, pleeease?" Rinoa pleaded and finally Selphie and Quistis nodded to her.

"Okay, but...what if he hears us?" Selphie sounded worried still.

"I dunno, turn on the T.V., radio, anything to make noise. I'm gonna do research in my room." Rinoa started up the stairs as she heard the radio and television come on behind her.

She hurried into her room, locking the door behind her, and didn't bother turning on the light as she lit a few candles near her desk. Her laptop was already turned on and the background was a beautiful picture of the night sky.

In the corner was a design of an angel's wing. The mark of the Heartilly clan. She pulled up the Internet, typing in her password, and typed in the site for her search engine.

She typed in the name 'Raine Leonhart', seeing if it said anything about her having a son. Nothing came up about Squall, so instead she looked through Raine's files searching for any affairs she had.

Something came up about her and a Laguna Loire, Rinoa had heard that name before, it said that they were very close and they were planning on getting married but Laguna left her.

Rinoa typed in the name 'Laguna Loire' to find that he was the clan leader for the biggest vampire clan in all of Esthar, so that's where she had heard the name before, she had even met Laguna once when she was little, when the clans were at peace.

But there was nothing about Loire having a son, so Rinoa tried looking for picture's of Loire. She found one of the day she met him, it was when her mom was still alive.

Rinoa, age five, stood grabbing Julia Heartilly's hand as Julia was shaking Laguna Loire's hand. And there, standing next to Laguna, a scowl on his face was Squall, age five.

Rinoa found another picture, it was of both her and Squall at the party, they were standing together looking in opposite directions as they held hands. Little Rinoa smiled and it seemed to Older Rinoa that Little Squall was smiling also.

"We met, way back then..?" Rinoa asked to the candlelight as she stared at the pictures.

XxXxX

"Squall!" Irvine called as he walked up the stairs into his friend's room. "We couldn't find anything on a 'Rinoa Heartilly'."

"Try 'Rinoa Caraway'." Squall said minimizing the picture on his desktop.

"Why are we looking for information on this girl?" Irvine looked suspicious as he narrowed his eyes in Squall's direction.

"She is the last of her clan, she might want to help us out. She's the one that killed Xu, but she seemed like she didn't want to. Maybe she wants to end this war as much as we do."

Squall turned back to his computer as if the conversation were over, and Irvine took the hint. He called down to Zell to look for 'Rinoa Caraway' instead of 'Heartilly', and left the room.

Squall pulled up another picture and found it was during the last peaceful time, when he was five. He was standing next to his father and he really hadn't wanted to be there, the only reason he was there was Kiros had promised him $10 if he went.

He had never found a caption to go with the picture and didn't want to find out who the woman was his father had been shaking hands with, but when he saw the little girl standing next to her, he knew who the woman was.

She was Julia Heartilly, the reason the peace was broken once again between the clans, a Vampire had killed her and the war was once again renewed.

Casters never trusted Vampires again, Lycanthropes couldn't trust Vampires anymore, Casters had never been close to Lycanthropes, and everyone was against everyone.

The only thing Squall had first known about the picture was that two days after it was taken, Julia Heartilly died. Now he knew, Julia Heartilly didn't just die, Rinoa lost her mom, and hated her dad, she became a lot like Squall.

"Squall! You better come see this!" Zell was yelling up to him from downstairs and Squall grudgingly got up and walked down to his friends.

"What?" Squall didn't have his normal annoyance in his voice and Irvine seemed to notice while Zell didn't.

"I found something on the 'Rinoa Heartilly-Caraway' girl. She and her two roommates live in an apartment-" Zell started to say.

"And that's important?" Squall glared at Zell who sighed and turned back to the computer. Three pictures of I.D.'s were on his screen.

"Look, let me finish." Zell pointed to the first picture. "This is Quistis Trepe, last of the Trepe clan, she is part Caster, and a gifted, her ability is changing her form."

Zell pointed to the second picture. "This is, as I'm sure you know, Rinoa Heartilly. Her true last name being Caraway, she is a very powerful sorceress, and also she has the ability to peek at peoples minds for a few minutes, like you, and it drains her strength."

Zell pointed to the last picture on the screen. "And this is Selphie Tilmitt, again the last of her clan. She is the most powerful healer out there, and she is a Lycanthrope. They all are roommates in an apartment together."

Zell opened another screen it was the layout of their own apartments. "We live here." Zell highlighted their apartment in red. "They live here." Squall's mouth almost fell open, the apartment Zell had highlighted in blue was the one directly next to their own.

"They're right next to us!?" Irvine was astonished too as he looked out the window to the apartment next to them, the curtains were all closed and music was coming through the walls.

"Yup, but there's more. I did some more digging and found all three of them, even went to our school, and were in some of our classes!" Squall's mouth fell just as Irvine's did they both now looked through the window to the apartment next to them.

"Caraway's Team, our classmates, and they are very powerful, plus they live next to us...anything else we might want to know." Squall sounded irritated once again as Zell looked scared, there was more coming.

"Well, they aren't the only members of Caraway's Team..." Zell sounded unsure if he should say this, "...well, I found one other person...Seifer is that other person."


End file.
